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Queen behavior and how bees respond to them.

Is there general guidelines on how to tell if a queen is mated or not besides the presence of eggs ? I have a hive that has had 3 queens running around in it since its last swarm. 2 of the queens hang out on the underside of the top bars and one of them is on the comb but there are no eggs yet. I caught her today (the one on comb) because I was going to requeen the hive and the bees were all over the queen cage, and acting mad. (like they would normally be, with an established laying queen) The other 2 queens I took out a few days ago got no attention whatsoever. I even took them to another hive just to see their reaction.

Does the presence of attendant bees necessarily mean the queen is mated ? I ask this because most of the virgin queens ive seen in hives didnt get much attention from workers. So I was curious if this is a semi reliable way to tell if a newly hatched queen is mated when you cant find eggs but aren't ready to give up yet.

Re: Queen behavior and how bees respond to them.

I also look for new drawn comb. I can just open a nuc lid and usually know without looking any further if the queen has been successful in her mated return. I usually see new drawn comb on top the frames.
The nuc just has an enthusiastic 'mood' and is content.

Re: Queen behavior and how bees respond to them.

I'm not sure about "mated", but I can tell if a mating nuc believes that it has a vialable queen by the amount of feed that they take (and then the amount of comb they build like Lauri stated above). On my queen castles I use quart jars above each of the 3 chambers. By just looking at the amount of feed left in the jars I can pretty much guess which nuc I'm going to have to requeen. Queenless chambers don't take much food, while queen right hives try to build comb everywhere.

Re: Queen behavior and how bees respond to them.

Thank you so much Jeanette. I've been waiting a week to get an answer or for someone to confirm my suspicions. The comb building and feeding are other very good symptoms I hadnt thought of. I think I was just impatient in waiting for her to lay.